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Samhain Correspondences

We’re counting down, by the hour now, to Saturday and Samhain. If I wasn’t such a ‘hit n’ miss’ housekeeper the rest of the time, it might not take us so long to get ready for a party! I’ll be baking pies today– pumpkin, apple, and cherry. We have to finish up the back porch, getting the tables ready to lay out ouija boards, pendulums, candles, and runes. Outdoor decorations will be finished up tomorrow, since we’re expecting a windy day today, and the garage needs to be swept out so we can set up a long buffet table, just in case this drizzly rain continues. We’re all on an adrenalin rush at our house.

Below you’ll find correspondences for this fabulous holiday, courtesy of Crystal Forest– if you thought I had time to correlate all this material now, you’d be mistaken. You’ll find a link to her site below, and she has compiled *so much* wonderful information, bless her soul.

Activities and Rituals:End of summer, honoring of the dead,scrying, divination, last harvest, meat harvest

Make resolutions, write them on a small piece of parchment, and burn in a candle flame, preferably a black votive candle within a cauldron on the altar.

Wear costumes that reflect what you hope or wish for in the upcoming year.

Carve a jack-o-lantern and place a candle in it.

Choose and enthrone a Winter Queen and King the counterparts of the May Queen andKing

Make masks and costumes representing the different aspects of the God and Goddess andwear them to ritual or used to decorate your altar or temple area

Have each covener bring a carved pumpkin and carry it, lit, above their head in procession to your ritual site in memory of all those who perished during the burning times or your own dearly departed.

Symbolically extinguish the "hearthfire" of your home and then re-light it from the Samhain Sabbat Fire or cauldron.

Read or act out the "Descent of Inanna" or the story of Demeter and Persephone.

During ritual invite departed friends and family into the circle and tell them of all that had happened in your life since their departure. You may wish to set a place for them at your dinner table and use this time to contact them. This is a good time to talk to them of any unresolved issues that you may have had with them and to let them go.

Slice an apple on the altar displaying the star within and say, "this is the fruit of life- which is death " and then slice a pomegranate and display the seeds saying, " this is the fruit of death- which is life."

Let this be the traditional time that you make candles for the coming year, infusing themwith color, power, herbs, and scent depending on the magickal purpose.

At Samhain, witches once gave one another acorns as gifts. During the Burning Times,giving someone an acorn was a secret means of telling that person you were a witch.

Acorns are fruits of the oak, one of the most sacred trees to the ancient Celts. They are symbols of protection, fertility, growth, values, and friendship. Perhaps you would like to continue this tradition and give acorns as gifts this season. You might like to paint them gold as a God symbol and decoration.

Have a New Year’s Party-it is, after all, the Celtic New Year!

Look at old family photo albums or scrapbooks. Try to tell stories about each person in the pictures

Honor the dead, remember those you loved who have passed on-perhaps by putting their pictures or something they gave you on your altar during your ritual.

Carve faces in apples and pumpkins

Mix up some hot mugwort tea

Make a pumpkin pie *see recipe section*

Dry meat or make jerky-this is the traditional meat harvest- *see recipe section*

In a clean metal bowl, mix the olive oil, sea salt, and mandrake root. Mix thoroughly with a wooden spoon. Transfer the mixture to a clean sterilized jar. Using a dropper, add the essential oils. Swirl the essential oils into the base oil/salt/mandrake mixture, don’t stir. Gently rotate the oil clockwise. Store the oil away from heat, light and moisture in an airtight glass bottle.

I would like to thank you for the efforts you’ve put in writing this blog. I am hoping to view the same high-grade content by you in the future as well. In fact, your creative writing abilities has encouraged me to get my own, personal website now 😉